Paris Nice, stage 4: Bouhanni’s redemption

After the frustration of losing Tuesday’s sprint by a jury decision, Nacer Bouhanni was vindicated with a convincing win in Thursday’s stage 3 at Paris-Nice in Romans-sur-Isère. A breakaway trio, led by Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel forced the sprint trains to work overtime at the end of 193.5km, but the sprinters would not be denied the opportunity, and Cofidis came out on top.

“I really wanted to win today after the big disappointment from the other day [DQ],” said Bouhanni. “Winning a stage here at Paris-Nice was a big goal, and today was the last chance, and once again the team did great work for me, so I am satisfied to be able to win to pay them back for the big support they’ve shown me here.

“The next big goal is Milano-Sanremo, and I am feeling stronger than this time last year. I already have three wins, whereas last year I still had not won.”

After those four were caught, a new group of Chavanel (Direct Energie), Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL – Jumbo), and Delio Fernandez (Delko Marseille) escaped. With three kilometers to go, it looked like the trio had a chance, 17 seconds ahead of the bunch.

Katusha and Cofidis chased furiously into the final two kilometers, working for their sprinters. With one kilometer to go, the break was in sight.

With 500 meters remaining, the break was caught. Trek – Segafredo’s Edward Theuns took a long-range shot at the sprint, but Bouhanni was neatly tucked onto the tall Belgian’s wheel. In the closing moments, the Frenchman jumped around the left side to win by a comfortable margin. Theuns settled for second ahead of Lotto – Soudal’s André Greipel, who was closing fast with Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff in tow.

Orica – GreenEdge’s Michael Matthews keeps the race leader’s yellow jersey for another day, having finished fifth in the sprint. “The day was okay. The main objective today was just to try to conserve a bit of energy for tomorrow and the next two days after that,” he said. “Today was just, try to stay safe and not waste much energy for the kick at the final. I think today was a success.”

Friday’s stage will see the race take on a category 1 climb to Chalet Reynard on Mont Ventoux, midway through the 198km day. It will then ride a succession of three Cat. 2 cols before a flat run to the finish in Salon-de-Provence.